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                                    gAcc README




Copyright (C) 1999  Thomas Nemeth

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.




gAcc is a program intended to manage one's bank accounts. It provides basic
functions such as :
 - having multiple accounts in a wallet file
 - user readable configuration file & wallets files
 - add / remove any account from the file (happily ;-) )
 - add / remove any operation from any account (idem :) )
 - modify the category list
 - point or un-point operations
 - display intermediate balance for each operation
 - re-edit operations
 - re-edit accounts
 - internationalisation (not yet finished. volunteers ?) and locale formats
 - etc...

Some other functions need to be implemented for better use. See the TODO file to
know what they are.

Licence is provided in the COPYING file.

Please read the BUGS file !

==============================================================================

Installing gAcc
---------------


To install gAcc you need to have :
 - GTK+ > 1.2.2
 - gcc (of course)
 - make ( ;-) )
 - enough disk space (approx 1Mo :)) with your own wallet files)

1. Create Makefile and other stuff.

	./configure

	Read INSTALL for guidelines on configure.


2. Edit the configuration file to suit your own configuration (you should
   not need to do this).

	vi src/config.h


3. Compile gAcc :

    make


4. Install gAcc :

    make install
    or
    su -c "make install"


Before installing you can test it by simply type ./src/gAcc and see what it
gives. The only files created are in the configuration directory
(default=~/.gAcc).

There is a category example in the etc/ directory which will be installed
as a system wide default.


==============================================================================

Configure options
-----------------

To list options, just type :

	./configure --help


==============================================================================

gAcc history
------------

I began the gAcc creation about 4 years ago (we are now in 2000). By this
time I was using Windows and Linux on my computer and I didn't find any
bank accounts management program under Linux. I just finished 2 programs with
Motif : a UNIX/DOS text files converter and an address book with dialing
capabilities.
I had begun to write a little bit of code with motif for a program like gAcc
when I meet Mr. freshmeat :) Then I discovered xacc. A very good program (from
which I took the look). I used it by the time I had a Slackware, and when I
moved to a debian I wanted to use its GTK+ version Gnucash. But it always got
down at compile time and I didn't want to wait for it to work. So I took
Moneydance in order to wait.
Last summer, I had enough with Moneydance so I decided to get a look at what I
had done before on such a program and I rewrite a cleaner version starting only
with data structures that where simple, clear, logical and easily modifiable. Of
course I choose the GTK+ toolkit. But I wanted to create something that would be
the same whatever the toolkit may be so I separated the lists management from the
display as much as possible (even if it was not as easy as predicted ;-) ). Text
and QT interfaces will come one day, but for the moment I'm trying to get
finished the GTK+ version.
As I didn't know nothing about accounts management, I based my program on the
simplier and obvious functions one could need (add/delete/calculate/clear/etc.)
Then I began to communicate with Michel Verdier and he showed me a new way I
hadn't thought to : modularity ! Indeed the simplier a program is, the more it
would be used, but a too much simplier program is also a program that miss
functionnalities... That's where he's work came : perl plugins. So I could kept a
simple base and add functionnalities as anyone whishes. Those who want to use
thoses functionnalities are able to do it and those who don't can remove them
as they don't use them.


==============================================================================

homepage : http://gacc.sourceforge.net
You can send me commend, bug reports or patches to tnemeth@free.fr

Help questions can be sent to :
    gacc-help@lists.sourceforge.net

Development questions, suggestions (etc.) can be sent to :
    gacc-devel@lists.sourceforge.net